Swiss born architect, theorist and designer Le Corbusier worked and wrote with a unique vision, energy and clarity that made him one of the most influential figures shaping the international style during the early 1900s. Born Charles Edouard Jeanneret, he rechristened himself Le Corbusier in Paris in 1920, around the time he started his journal L'Esprit Nouveau. An active member of the Parisian art scene and co-founder of the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM), he championed a minimalist modernism built around the idea of the home as a "machine for living."

In 1928 he began creating furnishings for his buildings as part of a collaboration with Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand. The three created a series of tubular steel furniture that they exhibited at the 1929 Salon d'Automne in Paris and from which emerged some of the most lasting icons of the international style. The furniture, entitled as a group, "Equipment for Living," was designed in rich leather or cowhide upholstery and featured the swivel chair, the armchair and the chaise longue, which Le Corbusier referred to as the "relaxing machine."